Police: Plan to steal drugs led to stabbing at UVM

UVM police say stabbing involving three people was related to a drug deal gone bad. One suspect has been charged.

Dec. 4, 2012

University of Vermont police officers and Burlington Fire Department firefighters examine the scene of a possible stabbing on campus on Monday, December 3, 2012. Firefighters on the scene reported that two people were transported to Fletcher Allen Health Care. / GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS

Joshua Mossburg is arraigned in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington on Tuesday on assault and robbery charges stemming from a stabbing on UVM campus on Monday evening. / EMILY McMANAMY/Free Press

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A plan by three teenagers to rob a University of Vermont student of acid Monday night resulted in two young men being stabbed and a third being beaten, according to police.

UVM Police said Joshua Mossburg, 19, Mike Benedict, 18, and Eli Baron, 18, traveled from Pittsburgh, Pa., over the weekend to UVM, where Baron was enrolled, and that the three hatched a plan to rob an acquaintance of the drug.

Mossburg would later recall for police that at about 6 p.m. he waited in a car parked in the Wing Hall parking lot while Baron and Benedict attempted to rob 19-year-old UVM student Jarrett Clark, according to an affidavit written by UVM Police Detective Skyler Genest.

Clark told police he stabbed Baron and Benedict after the two men jumped him and he was hit in the head, perhaps with a rock, and beaten, according to a supplemental affidavit written by UVM Police Detective Mark Galle.

Mossburg pleaded not guilty to the charge Tuesday morning in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington. Judge Brian Grearson ordered Mossburg held for lack of $50,000 bail, noting the severity of the allegations and the defendant’s lack of ties to Vermont. If convicted, Mossburg would face 1-20 years in prison.

Mossburg’s older sister, Kate Mossburg of Madison, Wis., described her brother to the Free Press Tuesday afternoon as something of a gentle giant who got caught up in a bad situation.

“He’s a soft soul,” she said. “It would take a lot for him to do something physical to someone.”

Clark, who lived at 224 Wilks Hall on Redstone Campus, was eventually discharged from Fletcher Allen and cited to appear Thursday in court on suspicion of selling LSD. As of 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, Baron and Benedict remained hospitalized: Baron in good condition and Benedict in fair condition.

“UVM Police is continuing its investigation and further charges are possible,” UVM said in a statement released early Tuesday afternoon. “Police Services is asking anyone who was in the area of the Wing parking lot between the hours of 5:30 p.m. and 6:16 p.m. yesterday (Monday) to contact Police Services.”

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The statement added that “all four men will be issued no-trespass orders for the university campus.”

Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan said Tuesday that in addition to Mossburg and Clark, his office intended to levy charges against Baron and Benedict “at the appropriate time.”

UVM Spokesman Enrique Corredera said the two UVM students allegedly involved, Baron and Clark, “are subject to both internal student conduct review as well as the criminal justice system.”

School officials, he said, decided against using the university’s CATAlert emergency notification system Monday night to alert students to the stabbing.

“Once police services got to the scene, they felt confident that it was a contained situation,” Corredera said. “This was not random, and all of the individuals involved in the incident were accounted for and being dealt with.”

However, a non-emergency notification system that school officials intended to use to advise students about the stabbing failed, he said, leaving many students in the dark about what transpired.

“We have two list serves that we use,” Corredera said. One sends messages to faculty and staff, and the other to students. “And we sent an advisory about the incident to both lists, but unbeknownst to us, the delivery for the UVM students list serve failed.” Although a message about the altercation reached faculty and staff at about 10:30 p.m. Monday, a separate message did not reach students until about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.